DUBAI, March 10 (Reuters) - Arab uprisings that have spread
to the conservative Gulf region face a crucial test this week in
Saudi Arabia where activists have made unprecedented calls for
mass protests against the kingdom's absolute monarchy.

Gulf leaders are struggling to hold back an Internet-era
generation of Arabs who appear less inclined to accept arguments
appealing to religion and tradition to explain why ordinary
citizens should be shut out of decision-making.

Protests are planned in other Gulf countries such as Yemen,
Kuwait and Bahrain on Friday, the region's weekend. The time
after Friday prayers has proved to be crucial in popular
uprisings that have brought down Tunisian and Egyptian rulers
who once seemed invulnerable.

Saudi Arabia, the largest country in the Gulf, is home to
Islam's holiest sites and a long-time U.S. ally that has ensured
oil supplies for the West.

More than 32,000 people have backed a Facebook call to hold
two demonstrations in the country, the first of them on Friday.
Saudi police dispersed a protest by a Shi'ite minority in
the OPEC member's oil-producing Eastern province near Bahrain on
Thursday with one to four people wounded as shots were heard,
witnesses said. [ID:nLDE7292NY]

It was the latest of a series of small protests by Eastern
Province Shi'ites over the past three weeks and clerics are
trying to dissuade Sunnis in the major cities from joining in by
branding the demonstrations a Shi'ite phenomenon.

"Secret Shi'ite hands want to corrupt this country,"
messages sent to mobile phones this week said.

Riyadh has tried to counter the call with promises of money
and other measures including a pro-government Facebook page
"against the revolution" with 23,000 supporters.

"There is no fear but much anticipation. I don't necessarily
think much will happen tomorrow, but the most important thing is
that an idea has appeared," said former Saudi judge Abdelaziz
al-Gassem, adding small numbers could set off a chain reaction.

"(Gulf rulers) are deluded in thinking they can ignore the
demands," he said. "They are facing their biggest test ever,
bigger than al Qaeda -- the people demanding justice, equality,
the rule of law, supervision of government. This cannot be dealt
with through violence."

Saudi Arabia has tried to present itself over the years as
immune to the kind of activism now sweeping the Arab world.
But al-Gassem, a campaigner for reforms, said these arguments
were "nonsense".

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More on Middle East unrest: [nTOPMEAST] [nLDE71O2CH]

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SHI'ITES LEAD THE WAY

"What the regime is worried about is setting a precedent for
protests, that when people have problems they're going to feel
more comfortable and more willing to take to the streets," said
Shadi Hamid, an analyst with the Brookings Institute in Qatar.

Washington -- which has buttressed the Gulf dynasties as a
counterbalance to Iran -- raised the stakes in comments this
week calling peaceful assembly a universal right that must be
respected even in a country that claims unique status as an
Islamic state like Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal slammed "foreign
intervention" in a news conference on Wednesday that seemed to
highlight the problems facing a family that monopolises
political life in a country named after them.

"The called-for reform does not come via protests and (the
clerics) have forbidden protests since they violate the Koran
and the way of the Prophet," said Prince Saud, who has occupied
the foreign minister portfolio since 1975.

STARTED IN YEMEN AND SPREAD

The protest movements hit populous Yemen a month ago and
spread to the Gulf states where dynasties who secured their rule
in colonial times and have bought their people's acquiescence by
dispensing petrodollars.

Bahrain has been the most vulnerable. Majority Shi'ites who
resent domination by the al-Khalifa dynasty have staged
pro-democracy protests and analysts say Saudi pressure has been
heavy on Manama to stamp them out.

This week hardline Shi'ite groups formed an alliance to
ditch the monarchy and turn Bahrain -- an island state whose
rulers look to Riyadh for support -- into a republic. They are
planning a march on the royal palace on Friday. [ID:nLDE72923E]

Yemen is also set for an escalation after opposition groups,
who have held pro-democracy marches for the past month, rejected
veteran ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh's offer of reforms on Thursday.
[ID:nLDE7290CP]

A small number of Kuwaitis held protests this week, while
activists and intellectuals in the United Arab Emirates
petitioned the rulers for democratic elections. Last week Omanis
clashed with police over jobs and corruption in government.

Several Gulf rulers seem to hope more money will solve their
problems.

Saudi King Abdullah has vowed to distribute some $37 billion
in handouts to students, the unemployed and other low-income
Saudis via a series of pay bonuses and benefits announced as he
returned in February after a three-month absence for medical
treatment.

"For most of us, it's not about money, it's about having a
share in our government," said Mohammed al-Mansoori, a rights
activist in the United Arab Emirates. "In other places people
have dignity, here, people don't."
(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon; editing by Philippa
Fletcher)